Journalist Demir Released After Detention Over Report on Syria Operation

Photo: Hakan Demir / Twitter

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Hakan Demir, the Digital Services Manager of daily BirGün, was detained at around 4 a.m. in the morning in a police raid in his home and was brought to İstanbul Security Directorate.

He is charged with "provoking people into enmity and hatred," upon to Article 216 of Turkish Criminal Code, his attorney Ali Deniz Ceylan told bianet.

Demir was asked about a tweet by BirGün's official account in the police questioning. Attorney Ceylan said in the statement that the report does not constitute a crime and the tweet was posted on the purpose of reporting news.

Demir was sent to the prosecutor's office after giving a statement to the police. He was released with an international ban after giving a statement at the prosecutor's office.

İbrahim Varlı, an editorial board member at BirGün, said in a tweet that Demir was detained because of a report on the operation that was "received from agencies."

Pro-government daily Sabah targeted Demir yesterday in a report titled, "Ugly post by BirGün newspaper."

Turkey began a military operation in northern Syria yesterday (October 9).

(AS/VK)